Inside Bengal's 800-Km "Green Wall" Along Jharkhand Border To Fight Air Pollution

The Mamata Banerjee-led government plans to set up an 800-km long greeen corridor, which will work as a "bioshield" - a forested area that would act as a "Green Wall" - along the Jharkhand border to intercept pollutants entering Bengal.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation recently announced the allocation of around Rs 100 crore in its budget for the financial year 2026-27 to fight the winter air pollution.

Self-propelled road-sweeping machines, battery-operated mechanical sweepers, litter-sucking machines and water sprinklers are among the shopping list items of the civic body.

Winter 2025 witnessed a significant dip in Kolkata's air quality.

"During the lockdown we had an opportunity to understand the level of pollution if all anthropogenic activates are shutdown. I believe it was the only opportunity in our lifetime. Our data showed that PM 2.5 was substantially reduced in Bengal but it was not even bellow 47 per cent. This gave us an opportunity to investigate. In collaboration with School of Atmospheric Science and IIT Delhi the investigation report suggested Kolkata was not suffering because of pollution originated here which we call in situ pollution. It is largely coming from outside Bengal," Dr Kalyan Rudra, who was attending a FICCI conference in Kolkata themed on integrated waste management, told NDTV.

The report proved the trigger.

Dr Rudra, who has been working with the state government to make Bengal free from pollution, proposed to build a green shield to protect Bengal. An 800 kilometres long wall like the wall of China or a wall built to protect a castle. The project is themed on the ancient history to prevent a modern enemy which is pollution.
 
"World bank has subsequently agreed that the Indo-Gangetic Plane transfer huge volume of pollutants carried by north-west wind. I can't change the planetary direction nor we can change the rainfall pattern. So we decided to create a green corridor along the western border of Bengal. It is an eight hundred kilometre long barrier with Jharkhand. From Jhargram we started to work. Recently we are working with West Bengal forest developing corporation," Dr Kalyan Rudra said.

What will this green corridor look like?

It starts from Jhargram district of Bengal. Would cross Purulia and Bankura in between till it reaches Birbhum. These four districts of Bengal, which are under Jangal mahal corridor, are already covered with huge forest lands.

Under green corridor project, Dr Kalyan Rudra is just filling the gaps.

Once the thick green forest cover is established till Birbhum then afforestation would be done up to Dinajpur district as well, Dr Rudra told NDTV.

"We explore the gaps in forest using satellite image. Those are largely degraded forest land. In collaboration with the Forest Development Corporation under National Clean Air Program, we started afforestation. Last year in Purulia we have created a forest of about 405 hectares," Dr Rudra said.
 
Since afforestation can be done only during rainy season, it is restricted between June and September. This year, the project is being continued in northward till Birbhum.

The project also includes local people which gives them an opportunity to contribute as workers. Along with this Dr Kalyan's team is also trying to recycle the forest and agricultural residue involving joint forest management groups. They will collect residue which will be converted into bio-palate or bio bricked.
 
Reshmi Bagchi, a fashion designer, said, "I think West Bengal is experiencing air pollution crisis for the past two years and Kolkata ranking as the second most polluted metro city is disturbing. The AQI level in the city we have is alarming. During winter condition usually worsen. There was no rainfall in the winter season. We have noticed we are suffering with health issues specially in winter".